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Transforming Greens with the VGR TopChanger
The things we like most about the VGR TopChanger are its instant playability and the ability to get amendments exactly where we need them. With the TopChanger, you can literally go out first thing in the morning, aerify a couple of holes, brush and roll them, and be playing on those greens a couple of hours later. We also really like the ability to blend our sand with amendments and then get that material where we need it. With the 648, we're only getting sand down maybe four inches. With the TopChanger, we're creating sand channels six to eight inches deep.
What originally led us to the TopChanger was contracting out DryJect. We loved the results from DryJect, but the process was extremely labor intensive. I have an older crew, and hauling buckets of sand around all day just isn't in the cards. From there, we contracted the TopChanger and quickly realized that we only needed three people to operate it: one person runs the machine, one handles the loads and fills the machine with a front loader, and the third hooks up the water and monitors the process.
Here at Citrus Hills, we have 63 holes of golf, so contracting the TopChanger out 12 times a year would be extremely expensive. That's when we decided to purchase the machine and move all of our aerification to the TopChanger.
We have very sandy soil with poor nutrient-holding capacity, so being able to blend our topdressing sand with amendments is really what sold us on the machine. We do three aerifications on each course, and it's really revitalizing the soil in our greens. We see the benefits in playability, appearance, growth, water-holding capacity, and overall stress tolerance.
I would recommend the TopChanger to anyone. We've jumped in with both feet because we're trying to accomplish something very specific—essentially, we're trying to flip our soil by using the TopChanger multiple times throughout the summer.
Everybody's goals are different, but for us, the results have been significant.
August is an extremely stressful month for grass here in Florida, and traditional aerification can compound that stress. I would suggest using the TopChanger in August. It's basically a stress-free aerification for the grass—not necessarily for the superintendent.
John Rustek
Golf Course Superintendent
